Passportgate – A History

This month marks the fourth anniversary of what author Jack Cashill called

one of the great underreported stories of the 2008 campaign: the multiple breaches of the presidential candidates’ passport records in March of that year.

This will be a comprehensive overview of the story, so it is long and for that I apologize. Read it or save it for future reference. The revelations from Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse are topical. The vettings of Barack Obama by Breitbart’s successors are topical. As the campaign revs up, the blogosphere and many conservative news websites are revisiting stories from 2008. The security breach of the State Department passport files, in 2008, was among the very first signs of the scrubbing of any documentary evidence that might disprove what Obama wants Americans to believe about him. As hard as it may be for us to believe, there remain Americans who know little about these issues. And so, we reprise …

The passport breach

The security breach, first reported by the Washington Times and later confirmed by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, involved a contract employee of [John O.] Brennan’s firm, The Analysis Corp., which has earned millions of dollars providing intelligence-related consulting services to federal agencies and private companies.

During a State Department briefing on March 21, 2008, McCormack confirmed that the contractor had accessed the passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John McCain, and that the inspector general had launched an investigation.

Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to “cauterize” the records of potentially embarrassing information.

“They looked at the McCain and Clinton files as well to create confusion,” one knowledgeable source told Newsmax. “But this was basically an attempt to cauterize the Obama file.”

(Timmerman is currently running for Congress in Maryland. Update: he apparently lost.)

Three individuals were intially caught up in the security breach, which was flagged by a computer program of which the perpetrators may have been unaware; but inexplicably knowledge of the breach didn’t percolate to the upper levels of the State Department until months later, against what should have been established procedures. The breaches of Obama’s files occured on January 9, February 21 and March 14, 2008. Cashill reported that

[O]ne of the three contract employees caught in the act worked for the Analysis Corporation, the CEO of which was John Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran. The [Washington] Post does report that Brennan donated $2,300 to the Obama campaign but suggests no deeper tie. This information is offset by the revelation that the other two culpable contract employees worked for Stanley Inc., whose CEO Philip Nolan contributed $1,000 to the Clinton campaign.

Stanley, however, had been handling passport work for 15 years and had just been awarded a five-year, $570-million contract. The company had no reason to play favorites in the 2008 campaign. It promptly fired the two employees, neither of whom was likely working at the directive of Nolan or of the Clinton campaign.

Unlike Stanley Inc., a huge government contractor listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Analysis Corp. had fewer than 100 employees, and its one culpable employee escaped discipline. The Post article tells us only that “his or her employment status is under review.”

At the time of the passport breach, Brennan was advising Obama’s campaign on matters of intelligence and foreign policy. When Brennan was later selected by Obama to join his administration as an advisor on counterterrorism (now Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President), the passport breach wasn’t mentioned by the Washington Post, according to Cashill. Daniel Pipes of Front Page Magazine referred to Brennan as “sycophantic” with regard to his relationship with Obama.

The news media brushed the incident off as simple curious snooping into the lives of the rich, famous, and powerful, although Timmerman’s anonymous source supplied the actual reason, which was to “cauterize” Obama’s passport file of “embarrassing” information.

Whether deliberate or coincidental, the State Department added to the “curious snooping” meme by widening the investigation to look for browsers other than the three who worked for contractors and who were caught by the computer program. Interestingly enough, it seems to have been Obama’s passport file that was being watched most closely by the system; it was the breach of his file that brought the “snooping” to light. The Inspector General was supposed to have been informed, but the Washington Times reported that

it is not clear whether the IG reviewed the improper computer activities, the officials said.

Acting Inspector General William E. Todd and the chief IG branch investigator, James B. Burch, a former U.S. Secret Service agent, are leading the passport probe …

Todd was appointed in January 2008 after Howard J. Krongard left the post of Inspector General (having been run out for political reasons). Todd was replaced by Harold W. Geisel in June 2008, so Geisel presented the final report about the security breach. A rather convenient shuffling of the players at a crucial time. That same Washington Times story shows the unusual focus on the breach of Obama’s records:

As soon as we realized that there were these unauthorized accesses for Senator Obama’s passport files, we collected the information, we briefed the secretary [Condoleeza Rice], we briefed Senator Obama’s staff, all before we ever replied to the reporter,” Mr. McCormack said.

What’s odd is that a reporter informed the Secretary of State of the breach! How did a reporter know before she did? Inspector General Todd should have known in January 2008, when the first breach was flagged.

In July 2008, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), produced an official report of the results of the investigation into the breach; a report so heavily redacted that it is useless to citizens wanting to know the truth. The report, labeled “sensitive but unclassified”, stated:

A U.S. passport is the official U.S. government document that certifies the holder’s identity and citizenship and permits travel abroad. Applications for passportsrequirethesubmission of personally identifiable information (PII), such as the applicant’s date and place of birth and social security number. In addition, other documentation, such as the applicant’s birth or naturalization certificate, is required.

From a footnote in the report:

The term “personally identifiable information,” as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, refers to information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as name, social security number, or biometric records, either alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth and mother’s maiden name.

The report further stated that the Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS) contains

scanned images of passportapplications and select supporting documentation for records created from 1994 to the present. In addition, PIERS contains passport applicant information, but no scanned images, for records created from about 1978 to 1993. … PIERS also contains additional information, such as previous names used by the applicant, citizenship status of the applicant’s parents or spouse, and scanned images of passport photos, and select supporting documentation, if applicable, submitted by the applicant.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center says that

The contents of a passport file can include all the information that is required in a passport application. This includes:

Do tell…Do tell… I recall I first stated maybe “SAD” never ever got married..as they played with our heads back then also.
But may have jsut filed for a divorce to cover many of their lies.
We started with TexasDarlin… searching for missing Lacy …(Scott Lee Peterson) he in fact got the death sentence so long ago. Seems like a life time…. Doing what were doing matters more than air itself ?…Lately…not so sure about that! I’m sick that the train is stalling on us all…. But the fruit is getting ripper and will soon fall from the tree…we do know this…. we didn’t do this for a hobby….right!
Miri …paste and copy … joke … (no paste no scissors….I will figure that out…what about Gordo’s tips? I will look! thanks for this new info.

I’m sorry I didn’t explain, Zenway. Amazing, isn’t it, how long we’ve all been together? What I meant is that it seems you are typing links that you want to share. I’d hate it if I had to do that because I make too many typos and links usually make no logical sense! I wondered if you don’t have a mouse or a way to copy links from the address bar and them paste them into the comments?

When you have the page displayed, put your pointer on the URL at the top. Right click the mouse, and click on “select all” from the little list. The URL will be highlighted. Then right click again and click on “copy” from the little list. Then go to the comment box on our blog, place the pointer within the box, right click the mouse and click on “paste”. Then the URL will be copied and pasted into the comment box, and you won’t have to remember it or risk making a typo. I usually open two windows or “tabs” on my browser, one for our blog and another for searching the Web. It makes it easier to copy and paste.

highlight the thing you want copied
hit “ctrl” and “c” at same time – that will copy
put cursor in place you want to paste (you can go to a different page, program, whatever)
hit “ctrl” and “v” at same time – that will paste
voila! copy and paste made easy

There is some reason that people in the media were being threatened back then, hushed up, and also regular citizens being treated bad for asking questions and wanting to know something as simple as this: Is Obama a natural-born citizen, or is he even a citizen? This is not a bad question or a question that people should be getting threatened over at all. Doesn’t make sense.

Can’t tell me something didn’t happen. So was/is he working with the CIA, or has our country been threatened that if he isn’t president, then someone will destroy our nation?

I’ve seen that thrown out there before, that maybe we have nukes pointed at us, or so people were told. May not be true that we do, but someone could have threatened us saying that.

It’s the mystery with no answer, kitty. Been trying to make sense of it for 4 years now. It could actually be as simple as fear of being racist, fear of economic retribution (as Jesse Jackson has successfully pulled off against major corporations many times), or mafia-like machine politics taking over our entire government, aided and abetted by a complicit media, academia, progressive elites, all of whom WANT what Obama’s doing to happen. They’ve failed, within our form of government, to IMPOSE their solutions. They can’t get the People to vote in what they want. They so far haven’t succeeded in getting the courts to give them what they want–fundamental transformation via “reinterpreting” the clear words of the Constitution. And then, along with all that, we have the entire rest of the world that envies us and WANTS to see us brought down to their level. While Europe is getting rid of socialism because they have learned it doesn’t work, this potus is trying to impose it BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK and that’s the best way to bring America to its knees. We know his ideology. That’s what he’s doing and the useful idiots who believe in this utopia he pretends to want are helping.

I hope it’s not that there are nukes pointed at us. It may be as simple as Soros threatening to pull the trigger on our economy. He’s brought down the economies of other countries. He’s behind most of the many progressive think tanks and so-called not-for-profits that fund this destruction of our Constitutional government.

speaking of Toots, Madeline’s/Madelyn’s four or five Chicago addresses that she’s reported to have……Has anyone ever seen what those addresses were? I’ve seen it mentioned several places but if someone says they exist then what are they? Anyone know.
And Renee, ever look into Anderson Cooper? The Stanislau Stanowski connection (that’s a du Pont connection of Delaware, which I can find Ann dupont and Stanley M. Payne, Shirley R. Payne and in with cynthia Payne, and Ann Pon (du pont) and Eugene Payne on 2499 Kapiolani Blvd. Apt 3605 (which goes to Pon). Complicated….yes.

Thanks, nckel. Welcome. Don’t worry about comments being “worthy”. Our group of regulars has hashed and rehashed this story forever. We’ve already said it all. But it doesn’t stop us from saying it again. Obviously. :)

This is “something that should have been vetted long before now.” We here have vetted it many times, but the mainstream media MOSTLY ignores this. I wrote the post to bring together things we’ve collectively discovered over the past few years and to do something with a long list of passport-breach links I saved. The narrative helps me understand as I write, so it’s an memory exercise that helps things fall into place.

What’s interesting is that back then, in March 2008, there WAS NOT the total media blackout that we see today. There WERE numerous stories in the mainstream media about the incident. But as the story developed, the first signs of the coming blackout were there. I couldn’t include everything that I noticed.

But one thing I did notice when reading the transcript of one of the early press briefings was that several times a reporter was on the verge of mentioning Brennan’s name and the State Dept. spokesperson cut him off before he said the name. It seemed obvious that Brennan’s name was not supposed to be brought into it. (If you’ve ever seen Gibbs or Carney cut off Lester Kinsolving in mid-sentence, then you know what I mean. But this was a GWB/Condi Rice spokesperson.)

Then we got that ridiculously redacted “report” of the investigation. Then we saw how they widened the enquiry to pull in every file clerk who ever looked at Cher’s (made that up) passport file. For what? For the same reason that the cauterizer also looked at Clinton’s and McCain’s records? To cause confusion and deter people from deducing the real motive, which was to “cauterize” Obama’s file? To hide the identity of the “cauterizer”?

Add to that Obama’s feigned outrage. We noticed it at the time and talked about THAT, too. Everything we’ve seen from him since then confirms our suspicions. That his outrage was fake. That he knew about this incident and why it happened and what it accomplished. The fake outrage and calls for investigation and punishment were of a piece with his usual snarking behavior. Enjoying the theater of it and having fun with pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes.

So nine perps (at least) were named. Were ANY of the nine the cauterizer? Surely Condi Rice knows. She knows what was done, why it was done, and who did it. But everybody’s been in CYA mode since.

Whatever is embarrassing in those files is KNOWN to Rice and the others who looked into it. That was the fatal decision point and they kicked the can down the road. Maybe his mother worked for the CIA. Maybe he did. Maybe he informed on his radical associates. I can see him doing it, if it would further his own goals. By any means necessary. Use “the man”. Take his money. Hide your real goals and allegiances. Get power. Double cross. (Can you say Alice Palmer?)

Maybe they were simply afraid to let this incident destroy the first chance “African Americans” had to see a person who “looks like” them in the White House. I can understand the sentiment. It’s why so many people inadvisedly voted for him. Without vetting him. Without understanding who he is. Without looking beyond the alleged color of his skin.

I’m not convinced that he even is African-American. He could be Lolo’s son. He could be Hawaiian. He could be Papuan. He could be Uncle Frank’s son. (Pops?) He could be a foundling. Adopted. He could be anyone. We don’t know because everything’s been “cauterized.”

Nothing in my post is new. It’s all out there, on the Internet. Available for the past 4 years. I put it together as the lamestream media SHOULD HAVE DONE, but didn’t. For whatever reason.

Yes Alf, everything you mentioned is across the hall over and over…4 years of the connections cannot begin to fit on this post as Miri said, but that Lulu (Luo) connection ? Well, you can just GUESS ? Cherries, jeans, paint, pennies and pain etc….cheers Alf…just have a beer, and listen to the Beegees…We can just pretend it is still St Patty’s day. That high rise in Hawaii is fit for a Queen, or Princess. It has a great view of golfers too. From Iolani to Al a wai, as well as the Hilton and Diamond Head. Come on over Alfy. This is not the place here.

Greetings All,
Sorry I can’t do justice to this article, but I found it an interesting read. Feel free to move it to the trash heap, or somewhere out of the way.

Recall when we were going through all of the names in the 1991 Harvard Law Review? I came upon native Hawaiian Chris Bartolomucci and links to his involvement in Hawaiian independence .

Funny, but I was over at CitizenWells and A Crazy Old Coot made a comment that sent me searching again. I came across this article.
David Keanu Sai v. Hillary Clinton, et al.

The gentleman in the law suit is claiming that since the Queen of Hawaii gave up the throne in protest and the US initially agreed to govern with Hawaiian law, that Hawaii is truly not a US state, but rather still a sovereign Kingdom. Thus, Obama is not a Natural Born Citizen.

http://hawaiiankingdom.org/sai-obama.shtml
snip…
According to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, foreign States can’t be sued for punitive damages, but can be sued for injunctive relief. As for President Obama, Nixon v. Fitzgerald would give immunity to the President from lawsuits, but President Obama can’t claim to be a bona fide President since the U.S. Constitution requires the President to be a natural born citizen. Since President Obama was born in the Hawaiian Kingdom, and not born in the United States, he is a President de facto (in fact). Nixon v. Fitzgerald only applies to Presidents de jure (by law). I am not claiming Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen, because he is by his mother (jus sanguinis). He is, however, not a natural born citizen (jus soli), which is a constitutional requirement to be President. During occupations of a country, international law prevents individuals from acquiring the citizenship of the occupied country through birth on the soil (jus soli) and can only acquire citizenship from their parents (jus sanguinis).
Snip…
Dr. Sai’s complaint alleges Clinton, Gates, and Willard with violating the Lili`uokalani assignment, the 1907 Hague Convention, IV, the 1949 Geneva Convention, IV, and for allowing the State of Hawai`i to have maliciously indicted, prosecuted and convicted Dr. Sai of a manufactured felony count of attempted theft of real property on March 7, 2000 for adhering to Hawaiian Kingdom laws, which by definition constitutes a “war crime” under Title 18 U.S.C. §2441(c)(1). The complaint seeks a permanent injunction, including punitive damages, disgorgement and restitution, to prevent and remedy any violations of the Lili`uokalani assignment and the international laws of occupation.

I’ve updated the post at the end by adding links to stories about the other information that might be cauterized. Sorry that I can’t find again the article I once read where a school librarian was quoted as saying that all the copies of the 1960 yearbook were swiped from the library. She attributed it, apparently, to fans of Obama; but I suspect another reason. Nobody has ever publicized the yearbook except SAD’s supposed BFF Susan Blake. And she only flipped through it on video. I don’t know that anyone has independently shown that SAD was in that yearbook or that she was in the yearbooks for all the years she supposedly attended Mercer Island HS. Her date of birth does NOT correspond with the year they say she graduated.

~ snip
No one has bothered to ask what price America has paid for Obama being British and illegal, in order to keep Vladamir Putin and Russia quiet?

This blog has catalogued the price exclusively and repeats it here in expansion:

1. Obama turned over the entire eastern bloc to Putin.

2. Obama allowed the annexation of Ukraine.

3. Obama has thwarted all reigning in of Iran as Putin protects the Persians.

4. Obama shut down any FBI inquiry into the Russian mass murder of the entire Polish Government.

5. Obama signed into law the absolute disarmament of these United States in the nuclear theater.

No one has yet asked the questions in linking the rumors of Obama having “studied” in Russia for a year. This blog in inquiring of the university there, was not replied to. But the question is, “Did in 2005, Vladamir Putin, know to detain Obama as “British”, because Obama had records like in America, of being a student of foreign birth and was using a foreign aid package to gain financial assistance?”

~~ but, oh,great expert, “nobody” is such a rash term. We have been on this quite a long time. We’ve spent years sifting pepper to find that piece of poop. and, yes, we even know that during the Icelandic volcano spewing ash across Europe, barky lied about attending a non-existent school soccer game whilst keeping the press awaiting. He snuck out of the White House the weekend of Polish assassinations (he couldn’t attend the funeral due to “weather”… and coincidentally, the Kenyan Embassy is enroute to the bogus schoolyard where his daughter was playing the phantom game.

WE KNOW. and the proof is that he needs “a little space” when he is no longer tethered to the American Electorate.

WE KNOW. he even bragged to the Russian students that he met his wife in class during his follow up Apology Tour. (and we remember him leaving Downing St. alone and shaken on the last leg of his Worldwide American Presidential Tour)

Avi lipkin again but here he’s more explicit , so is this what he telling Putin to wait for after the election for? This is so descriptive….and Turkey ,oh yeah. I had been watching a while back the relationship with Ibn in Turkey and Obama.

Because of the link to LC posted here, this is the first article I’ve read by him (I would’ve thought it was a “her” judging by the name and the pink background… little do I know. I’m from a different generation). Anyway, stuff like this so, so dispirits me. I feel like the PTB have all decided how it’s all going to go down and WTP are powerless. I hate feeling that way. As a matter of fact, I refuse to feel that way! We still have a country… our beloved USA. She’s made up of you and me… our children and grandchildren… and our belief in our Sovereign God, THE LORD JESUS, who promised neither to leave us or forsake us. Courage, people! Maybe I’m preaching to myself… who knows.

It is ok Sue. We all feel like that sometimes, but we get back up again and hope. Americans are a tough bunch. We did not get to be such a great place by being lazy or weak or by giving up so easy. Keep the faith. Believe in the basic good of the common man or woman, in all parts of the world. I always think of that. I have alot of faith in the human race (or most of it)

I like it too Alf. I have this belief of who cares if the typing is not perfect. The info is the real important part, not the spelling. I do agree. Educated people are not always so smart. I will stand with the every day people every time. There is no substitute for common sense, and no degree for it.
You either have it, or you DON’T. There is no subsitute, it cannot be bought or learned in my opinion. I have met many highly educated people in my life that think they are so sharp, but are totally clueless.That inflated ego problem.

I remember hearing a long time ago that Obama FIRST got a US passport when he became a senator. (Don’t know if that’s US senator or state of IL senator.) I have LOOKED and LOOKED for the source of that allegation, and never found it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s NOT true.

If true, it would support the probability that all his previous travels were on a British, Kenyan, or Indonesian passport (or maybe some other country. We simply don’t know where he’s from.)

Since many travels took place when he was an adult, traveling on a foreign passport would be an “affirmative action” that would disqualify him from eligibility for the presidency. And so, when DID he become a US citizen?

If he really did get a US passport (which from the images we’ve seen seem to indicate that it’s a diplomatic passport) after adulthood, then what might have been in the passport files that the cauterizer eliminated?

It’s frustrating to not have the answers to whether or not the original documents EXIST somewhere; whether they checked the current database records against backups of the files, to see if anything was added, changed, or deleted; and whether or not they KNOW WHAT was “CAUTERIZED.”

If all that existed in the database from 1978 until 1994 were database records that were transcriptions of old documents, then the documents have to be examined to match against what is NOW in the database records. If there was no logging of the ACTIVITY, then they don’t know what data elements were changed.

And if, for example, there was a record for a naturalization or an oath of allegiance or a name change or an adoption or derivative citizenship or a consular declaration of “native” citizenship, we don’t know if any or all of those records were simply DELETED, leaving no trace that they ever existed.

We don’t know WHEN exactly the cauterization took place. Say that Brennan’s one identified employee was the cauterizer. He began working back at the Dept. of State in 2004. Right as Barry was being touted for the wonderful speech he made at the Dem convention and right when they were thinking of drafting him to run for POTUS.

Yontz looked at the files from 2005 through March 2008.Cauterization could have taken place in 2005 or 2008, IF he was the cauterizer. Others looked at the files before 2007. Any of these people or none of them could have been the cauterizer. We don’t know if all the perps were identified to the media.

Since we do know that when Barry was a senator, news stories identified him as KENYAN BORN, then it’s safe to say that once they began to consider running him for POTUS, they needed to cauterize all that, too. They knew early on. They got a jump start on the cauterization, is my bet. It may be that the snooping came to light in 2008, but the actual cauterization took place long before he was on anyone’s radar. Surely his people knew of the potential, with 20,000+ having access to those files, that once he became well known to the public, many would be tempted to start vetting him.

Something to add, however, is the revealing and often overlooked research done by blogger ‘My Very Own Point of View’ into the newspaper birth announcement microfiche; an investigation that involved trips to Hawaii and the Library of Congress.

The published report is titled, “Extra, Extra, Announcing obama’s Birth,” and can be found here:

TY, Holly. And welcome. We know ladysforest well and we’ve always publicized and applauded her work. But it’s good for anybody new to know of these important stories that supplement the point we’re trying to make, which basically is: He’s not what he pretends to be.

I didn’t include the birth announcements in my list because these aren’t technically public documents; I was focused on how certain parts of our GOVERNMENT are illegally withholding public records FROM the public to deliberately hide the TRUTH about Obama.

So far, NOBODY has seen a circa-1961 NEWSPAPER with those announcements in it. The microfilms that exist in libraries MAY BE tampered with. The newspapers themselves OUGHT TO HAVE actual copies of the papers in their archives. Newspapers and even some libraries save the actual newspapers, not only on microfilm, but in paper form.

People save things like that, too, when their own children’s births are announced. Isn’t it odd that just as no hospital wants to “claim” him, nobody has come forward with a newspaper page with his birth announcement in it?

Presser with Joe starting soon in Az. Lots of big players about. Many great dinner chats afterwards, and meeting of good friends and new friends. Those chats will be priceless and very interesting….networking with the best of the best in America. Cheers. Go Joe Go ! You have America behind you and beside you. Think PINK, and not Code Pink either.

Excellent synopsis and historical perspective Miri. I am now getting a chance to catch up with my reading, and this review is definitely a keeper!

We had no inkling of how far the Marxists were willing to go to cover for BHO at the time. It is only by looking backward at all of the deceitful things that were done do we know how well planned this coup was. If only we had known then all of the shenanigans that were going on and what they meant, and if only the dots were connected and the mainstream media investigated and reported as they should have done, our counry wouldn’t be facing the mess it is in now. A man with limited history, a falsified background, and radical associations has pulled off the biggest con in the world. The world was duped and continues to be led by a radical puppet.

History will name those who were complicit in allowing this fraudulent man to run our country and try to destroy its basic tenants. BHO is a criminal pure and simple, and those that exalt him are anti-Americans. The destruction of the best country in the world was their goal, and those that remain silent with their information are traitors. Their day of reckoning will come, it is guaranteed. They can hide, but they will be eaten up inside. I hope we are alive to watch them suffer.

At this point, I would say that half the people (at least) in the USA were duped, but I’m not so sure about the world. I think the world is basically on his side if he pulls off what he wants to pull off. The world, in general, hates us and envies us. That’s why they are gung ho to see us brought down to their level and prevented from ever rising again. That’s one goal of the globalists. I hope that the country is waking up in time.

Please list all endorsements you have received so far.
I am proud to have received the endorsement of many leading progressive individuals and organizations, including U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis, Lane Evans, former Congressman and judge Abner Mikva, state senator Carol Ronen, state representative Julie Hamos, Citizen Action, the SEIU, the executive committee of AFSCME Illinois, UNITE, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers. In addition, former U.S. Senator Paul Simon had agreed to endorse me before his untimely death.

o lookie. a kid is born in Boston. he shall be a senator from rhode Island, and/or she shall be a Governor from Maryland. cool. and my son by the maid in Cal-forn-ni-a is kinda like a natural born American citizen. he’s a Kennedy, sorta.

i love irony*. Orwell would love the characters. whata shame about Caroline losing that NY Senate thingy back in Spring 2008. sheesh.

“Fast-forward to four years later, and there is no new information. Why is this murder case not being pursued? Who at the State Department is covering up Obama’s passport breach? Lt. [sic] Harris told federal investigators before he was murdered that he received “passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State.” What became of the “co-conspirator”? Why wasn’t he/she brought to trial?”

… President Barack Obama nominated John Brennan, his chief counterterrorism adviser, to head up the CIA. Brennan, 57, has served as assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security since 2009.

Before voting to confirm, Republicans in the Senate may want to question Brennan about the role he played in Obama’s 2008 campaign, specifically his potential involvement in the multiple breaches of the presidential candidates’ passport records in March of 2008. …

To its credit, CNN Politics saw the real news angle in the passport scandal: “Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser.” Having made this point, CNN and the rest of the media fell silent.

After its initial article, the Post said not a single word about the incident or Brennan’s connection to it. The Post remained mute on the subject even in its 1,300-word front-page article of Jan. 9, 2009, “Obama Taps CIA Veteran As Adviser On Terror; Brennan Has Drawn Fire on Interrogations.”

The fact that an employee of Obama’s new counterterrorism adviser had breached Obama’s passport files just months earlier held no interest for the Post or any other major media outlet of consequence. …

A curious reporter might also have asked how Obama got to Pakistan. In 1981, Pakistan was not an easy or likely destination for an American tourist.

When the blogosphere raised these questions, FactCheck,org made the valid case that American citizens could travel to Pakistan in 1981 and thus dismissed the travel issue as “more ‘Birther’ nonsense.”

The fact that Obama could have traveled to Pakistan on an American passport, however, does not mean that he did.Not surprisingly, FactCheck failed to mention the variable that prompted the controversy in the first place, namely Obama’s curious silence about the trip until April 2008.

Nor, of course, did FactCheck mention the event that took place just weeks before Obama’s first mention of the Pakistan visit, namely the passport breach.

The responsibility now falls on the U.S. Senate to raise the essential questions that the media have not raised and likely will not. Don’t hold your breath.”